Thread: 84 RRC purchase

Update time - quite a bit more has been done to the old girl.

Firstly, the big problem was a lack of power steering due to a leak in the hoses. I had to replace 2 of the hoses from the steering box (1 to reservoir, 1 to pump). In the process, I broke one of the outlets on the steering box, so that took some time to fix also. In the meantime, I swapped the steering box with an older 3 bolt one, but this turned out to be even worse, as it was leaking fluid something chronic out of it's main seal.

Once the steering box and hoses were fixed and all back in, I took the opportunity to replace the steering arm and align the steering wheel again.

The speedo cable did help with the speedo to some extent; as the reading is now consistent and does not jump; however it still reads about 20km/h above the actual road speed. It could need a new angle drive, or could be a whole new cluster - as the tripmeter will not even reset when I push the button.

I've also done a bit more work to the ignition system to get the car running a bit better. All new plugs, leads, dizzy cap and rotor arm.
I stuck a marine battery in the dual battery system.

The car is finally starting to take shape.
I got rid of the old rusty black bonnet and have put on a blue one.

I have picked up a set of Ironman springs (2" lift) to whack on with the existing Bilstein dampers. A mate got me a good price, so am putting some faith in the Aussie brand!
Still trying to track down some wheel nuts for the Cheviot mags. It seems hard to find mag nuts in the 16x1.5 thread!!!!

Finally, the car has been converted from auto to manual....not the tidiest job either. Its a bit of a bodge job, but the transmission has been modified so the gear lever is right up next to the driver, in the position of the existing auto lever. It required some 'modification' to the transmission tunnel (re: grinding), so there is a mighty hole that needs addressing.
I have a big universal rubber gear boot on order that I hope will solve this problem - then I will make up some kind of custom aluminium surround to put over this with all the electric window switches.

Once this stuff is done I will have to take it on a country run to enjoy it and test it all out

Jezza, I remembered you asking about the wheel nuts for aftermarket alloys and I'm not sure if it is of any use to you now but the Performance Industries alloys have a very similar wheel nut to the Cheviots. They seem to fit the Cheviots from my `85 and are visually almost identical. These are Performance Industries wheels -



Gavinwibrow has a set of these wheels on the `93 he is wrecking. I will have some spares too, so you might be able to put a set of 20-25 together if you are still having a problem finding any.

I ended up buying a full set of Cheviots with matching wheel nuts and 31x10.5 tyres off an English bloke around the corner from me.

Was actually cheaper and easier than buying a full set of brand new nuts!

Cheers for the heads up

First venture after new springs and bigger wheels. Showed up the mate's 80's series landcruiser (nicknamed the plough!)
Rims protruded a bit much and the tyres copped some damage from the guards in



Got the Cheviots on here. They don't seem to stick out as much as the white steel rims. Only minor scrape on rear tyres.
As you can see from this picture, the car is lacking some serious flex. Would extended shocks improve this?



Found some mud up on the powerlines track. Have found the issues with taking on water - the car was missing 2 of the plastic under body guards that prevent crap splashing up into engine bay. The car got very hot on this day, as the radiator got caked in mud. Was a very tedious and slow drive back to Mundaring to wash off the radiator, having to stop whenever the car was getting too hot.

I have hopefully rectified the problem now by refitting one of the plastic underguards.

Now my attention is on the interior.

Trying to sort out the electrics in the car, so all the lights and gauges work/light up.

Have started with the dash. Obviously I am already troubleshooting the speedo; however there are a fair few of the dash lights missing or not working; this makes it difficult driving at night!



Looking for a cheap, plug in LED alternative or something. Have ordered a couple of things from eBay already, but they did not suit.



I'm not too keen paying $10-15+ per light for genuine at this point

Might sound crazy, and I don't know the implications (if any) but others here will. Have you thought of changing over the whole dash? I can do you a good price on a 93 version (and I'm in Perth)!!

Gee you've even got the horrible looking centre caps for the Cheviots! I've got a bunch of those cluster globes lying around Jezza.

Do you have a rear sway bar?

The globes are standard T5 dash light globes. You just need to extract them from the plastic holders. Very similar to the globes and globe holders used in my french cars.

If you replace with LED's, remember they are polarity sensitive so make sure you have the globe around the right way.

Did you fix the speedo angle drive. It's died in mine too now. I might see if I can pull it apart and re-bush it.

seeya,
Shane L.